It's taken a while, but the "telenovela"--a format that has proved popular in a number of worldwide markets in recent years -- will soon reach American audiences. A soap opera-ish format, albeit
with a predetermined and limited run, the telenovela has been particularly strong ratings-getter in Latin America. No wonder that it's going to get a big tryout here. Just last Tuesday, Twentieth
Television announced that it would launch a syndicated block of telenovelas next autumn under the Desire umbrella. Additionally, both CBS and ABC have said they are developing prime-time
telenovelas for the summer of 2006. Twentieth has been working on Desire for about a year and has secured rights to enough novela formats to air original seasons for five years. "That's how
confident we are," Pal Buccieri, Twentieth's president of programming, told
TelevisionWeek.
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